Full text of "The Loom Of Language"

266

The Loom of Language

dictate the past tense-form, and the two following rules about personal
endings*

(a) In German and Dutch, the Biole English -th of cometh is hardened
to -r> and the plural forms of both tenses have the infinitive
ending -en tacked on to the stem,

(6) In modern Scandinavian languages the ending of the invariant
present tense is -a or -ar, the past tense is invariant as in
English, and the infinitive ends in -e (Danish and Norwegian); or
-a (Swedish)

For an American or anyone born in the British Isles, the difficulties
of a Teutonic language begin with the noun and the adjective, especially

OLD ENGLISH AND  GERMAN NOUNS


	DAY (masc )
	WATER (neut ) | TONGUE (fern )
		BLAH (masc )

(a) OLD ENGLISH
				
{Norn Ace
	j daeg
	j-   waeter
	tunge
 -V
	bera

Dat
	daege
	waetere
	>   tunga^z
	beran

Gen
	daeges
	waeteres
	J
	

(Norn Ace
	| dagos
	r   waeter
	>   tunga?2
	r   berara

Gen
	daga
	waeteia
	tunge?za
	berew<3

Dat
	dagww
	TOeterww
	tungwm
	berww

(6) GERMAN:
				
{Nom Ace Dat
	}   Tag Tag(^)
	J-   Wasser
	Izunge
	Bar IBarew

Gen
	Tagss
	Wassers
	
	

fNom
	1
	T
	1
	I

UAcc glGen
	Tag5
	^   Wasser
	>   Zwigen
	>   Baren

IDat
	Tagen
	Wassetrt
	J
	J

the ktter The modern English noun has four forms in writing Of
these, only two are in common use, viz the ordinary singular form
(e g mother),, the ordinary plural (e g mothers) nearly always derived
irom the singular by adding -s Nowadays we rarely use the optional
genitives (eg. mother's and mothets*) when the noun stands for an
inanimate object such as chamber or pot The Old English noun had